After 16 years, Carlos Ortez is closing his Boyle Heights restaurant on September 28. He says the business may be ending, but his larger project is not.
Carlos Ortez’s announcement that he would close his Un Solo Sol project in the heart of Boyle Heights sparked a wave of reactions.
“Today, we are sharing some incredibly heavy but necessary news. Un Solo Sol will be permanently closing our doors on September 28, 2026.
This decision was not made lightly. As many of you know, the current economic climate has placed unprecedented pressure on small, independent businesses. Rising operational costs, inflation, and the broader challenges facing the restaurant industry have made sustaining a small footprint increasingly difficult.
We have fought hard to keep our prices accessible while maintaining the quality of our wholesome ingredients, but we have reached a point where we must pause.
However, this is not the end of our story,” Ortez wrote in the Instagram post.
And that final sentence, “this is not the end of our story,” is what he shared with us during a conversation with Parriva.
“I’m very calm, going through my period of meditation. I’m going to think deeply about the next steps. I’m full of ideas. The physical closing of Un Solo Sol does not end my project. My customers, the people who know me, know that the message I have tried to convey goes far beyond the food we offered,” Ortez says.
Part of his decision, he maintains, is rooted in the economic crisis.
Things have not improved economically since 2018, according to his analysis, when problems began for small businesses and low income working people.
The situation worsened in 2020 with the arrival of the pandemic, and now things have become even more difficult following what happened in Boyle Heights with the Lineage Warehouse fire.
“There has been some help, but it has not been enough. What we are going through is part of a larger project. Small businesses and areas like Boyle Heights have been set up by big capital. They want to keep hitting us and eventually make us disappear,” he adds.
However, despite having struggled for 16 years, Ortez does not see darkness in what is happening.
He sees moments for reflection, planning and clarity.
“It’s like soccer. You get scored on, you regroup and go back on the attack to score your own goal and tie the game. I’m sure that’s what is going to happen. I have the teachings of the ‘Old Ones’ deeply rooted in me, the ancient wisdom they left us as an inheritance. You have to be patient and not let emotions carry you away.
“I learned a lot from my father. He was a merchant. When things weren’t going well, he would stop, pause, think, meditate, maneuver, and then keep going.”
Ortez is a master of memorable phrases and analysis.
That is what he did at his restaurant.
He would leave the kitchen and come out front to talk with his customers and share his thoughts on current events, social issues and a philosophy in which he argues that Homo sapiens has lived out of balance, practicing things that have brought us to the point where we are today.
Above all, he believes this imbalance is reflected in food, where he is convinced that human beings were not designed to eat meat.
“It is not possible to continue sustaining all the resources we use to sustain the way we live,” he adds.
For him, stepping back from problems, analyzing them and looking for solutions is one of the options society must find.
With his ability to analyze and philosophize, he himself describes it as a profound “activity in the twilight of my life,” and smiles.
“This project was not only about the little restaurant. It was also about sharing social problems with people. Now I see myself sitting in the lotus position, thinking and meditating. Physical things do not even last 10,000 years. All that remains are rocks. There are more important things,” he says.
Ortez is aware that he has created a legacy over these 16 years of service.
He can see it in the comments on his posts, from customers who enjoyed coming in, eating healthy food and having a conversation that left them thinking.
“My message was understood. I am convinced of that. This remains as nourishment for the brain,” he says.
Ortez acknowledges that he will miss these interactions.
His original idea when he began thinking about retirement was to get the business running and eventually create franchises for his employees.
He would keep the restaurant open for up to 24 hours so things could move forward more quickly, but he could not sustain that pace.
“Capital has been strangling us. I have hope for a resurgence. For now, I have more ideas than I can express. There needs to be a profound restructuring.
“On September 28, I will finish my workday, close the doors and go meditate. Once I have clearer ideas and they are ready, I will make them known,” he says in closing.
